Mastercard, one of the leading technology companies in the global payments industry just launched its first Start Path Summit in Dubai.
The Summit, which brought together a number of innovative FinTech and tech startups, featured 11 of the latest global companies in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), big data, e-commerce, security, financial inclusion, and payments.
During the event, new opportunities in the banking and financial services sector were highlighted. This enabled the attending companies to explore partnerships with the startups to bring new consumer experiences in the region.
Deborah Barta, Senior Vice President, Innovation Channel Management & Startup Engagement, Mastercard commented on the summit saying: “Fintech startups are championing innovation in financial technologies to rethink banking and payments to usher in a digital future. In line with our vision of promoting innovation, Mastercard Start Path has been providing startups with the mentorship needed for long-term success. We are proud to have achieved a new milestone by bringing this distinctive initiative to the Middle East.”
Curious to know a little bit more about Start Path? It’s a global program run by the Mastercard Labs team, the Global Research & Development arm of Mastercard that has been providing operational support, commercial access and strategic investment for startups that are developing the field of commerce. Ever since it launched, Start Path has evaluated around 2,000 startups per year and engaged with more than 150 startups around the world.
Here’s a list of startups and FinTechs that took part in this year’s Start Path Summit:
- DefinedCrowd, which offers a platform that collects, refines and structures training data for AI and ML systems
- Identitii, a payment overlay that enables secure and trusted information exchange, between banks and their customers
- HANZO, which offers a SAAS platform that enables merchants to interact with consumers through their smartphones
- Iguama, a company that enables cross-border e-commerce to shop on any U.S. websites from Latin America
- MarketUp, a 100% free ERP and POS software for SMEs, as well as a one-stop-shop for management and sales
- Lidya, which helps small businesses in emerging markets access credit within a day
- James (by CrowdProcess), a credit risk AI for lenders that would increase acceptance rate and reduce credit operation cots
- OpenSparkz, an offers and rewards enablement platform that creates better experiences for consumers and merchants
- SnapSwap, which offers a fully automated digital customer onboarding solution for financial services
- Vouchr, an engagement layer on top of existing payment technology
- The Wallet App, which aggregates and digitizes all loyalty, bank and transport cards in a smartphone to be used for shopping.